The Eternal Adventure
by Wendy.Marvell.SDS
Summary: The long awaited 100-year-quest was finally underway, but none of Fairy Tails strongest could ever have guessed what devastation awaited them. It was no wonder that no one could survive this quest, that they had never allowed groups to attempt to solve the mystery. Would it be the unknown danger that would bring about the end, or the feelings that could never be said?
1. Chapter 1

Lucy found herself lagging behind her friends slightly as they walked, becoming lost in thought with a soft smile on her face. This last year in the guild had been all about recovering and spending as much time together as possible as a family. The battle with Alverez left them all with multiple scars, physical and psychological for everyone involved. Lucy would watch as Juvia would flinch if something got too close to her neck, Lisanna had barely been away from Mira-sans side for more than a few moments, constantly giving her sideways looks of worry. Even Bisca had changed slightly, spending all of her free time practicing with all of her guns and taking down targets that were impossibly far away. As for Lucy herself... It had been the same reoccurring nightmare. She had just finished re-writing the book of E.N.D. and Natsu had just caught up with her, Happy and Gray. Only a few moments later would he start to fade away, his skin glowing a soft gold before slowly being blown away as if by the wind. He would give her a wide-eyed look of panic, reaching out his hand as his lips formed her name, calling out to her for help. She would scream and try try to run to him, but no matter what he would be gone by the time she got there. That's when the voices would start, taking on the voices of her friends and telling her how she killed him, how she was too weak and that weakness failed everyone in the end. It was all her fault Natsu was dead, and there was no way to get him back. Lucy would wake up screaming sometimes, even once or twice running to the bathroom to be violently sick. There were days that she could no longer tell what was real or not, so in her pajamas she would run to the guild as fast as she could just to make sure that he was still alive, that she didn't actually kill him. It was one day that changed things though, it didn't make the nightmares go away but it made waking up a lot easier for her. Natsu started staying at her place more often. Sometimes he would just sleep on the couch or in the bed with her until she woke up, but there were other times when he woke her up himself, accidentally falling through the window or claiming to be bored. She would yell at him and demand how it was possible to be bored at two in the morning, but he would just smile sheepishly and suggest that they both go back to sleep.

Lucy looked up to see him now, a feeling of warmth and relief instantly coursing through her system. She watched as he spoke animatedly to Happy, his smile wide and bright as he spoke of the quest they were just starting. It didn't take long for her mind to drift back to what had transpired between them this morning, her cheeks slowly starting to burn as she remembered. The intense way he had looked at her, the feeling that shot through her when he had tightly grabbed her arms and leaned closer to her. Lucy was completely convinced that he was going to kiss her in that moment, but she couldn't decide if that made her happy or not. She had tried to tell him to stop, but the words died on her lips as he neared her even more. A small part of her really wanted to know if he would do it, even if the rest of her was internally flailing and panicking at the proximity of his lips from hers. Lucy's cheeks became warmer now and she dropped her gaze to her feet as she walked. She didn't even know if she was ready to be kissed, but she was definitely positive she wasn't ready for anything after that, but... If it was Natsu, if he were to actually take that chance and kiss her, would she like it? She quickly shook her head at the though, trying to clear her head of those indecent thoughts. She was probably just reading too much into the situation like she always did, wouldn't be the first time she had vivid imaginations about Natsus intentions. He was probably just trying to find a way to make her stop crying, even if they were happy tears she knows how much Natsu hates to see her cry. Lucys smile came back and she nodded to herself. That had to be the reason, there was no way Natsu would try and kiss her anyways, he didn't have those types of feelings for her. Natsu had told her that they would be together forever from now on, and honestly that's what she needed to hear more than anything at that moment. She looked back at all of her friends, feeling a little better now. Here they all were once again, her family, ready to embark on another mission together. Though this wasn't any regular old mission, this is one that even Gildarts himself couldn't complete. Granted, his quest was halted by Acnologia himself and he was terribly wounded, but the point still stands. Lucy felt a fondness fill her chest. Over the past year, Natsu and Gray had officially been named S-Class wizards. If anyone deserved it, it was those two. Of course Lucy hadn't been, but she holds no bitter feelings towards Master for that, it was just something she would strive for and become stronger to accomplish. It was just a few weeks ago that Master had approached Erza once again about accepting the 100 year quest. The first time, Lucy remembered, was back even before the group discovered the existence of Edolas, the day that the guild and all of Magnolia were sucked into the Anima. After that it would have been impossible to accept such a quest because everything happened non-stop from then on. Now that everything had settled down Erza had officially accepted the quest, but on one condition.

* * *

"But why would you want me on such an impossible quest?!" Lucy had exclaimed, facing Erza with wide eyes.

Erza had given her a kind smile, tilting her head slightly to the side. "Because you are part of this team, and there's no way that we would go on such a quest without you." She crossed her arms, adding in a sterner voice. "You are a lot stronger than you are giving yourself credit for, you need to stop thinking about yourself as someone less than anyone here. If it wasn't for you, Acnologia would have ensured that none of us would be standing here today."

"But still, you're the one who told me that I wasn't ready for a quest like this." Lucy pouted, unable to meet the Requip mages intense stare.

"That was a very long time ago, and you've proven yourself to be ready now." Erza said, a finality in her voice that just dared her to argue further.

"Besides, it wouldn't be the same without you!" Natsu had called, a childish smile on his face as he held Max in a headlock.

"You're part of Fairy Tails strongest team, there's no way we'd be able to do this without you." Gray added on, sitting on top of a giant block of ice.

Lucy sweat-dropped as she realized that Jet was frozen inside of it, and Droy was panting and groaning as he tried to free his leg from the same confines of the ice.

"So it's settled, we leave the morning after the award ceremony!" Erza smiled triumphantly, moving to join Mira-san at the bar for some well deserved cake.

* * *

Lucy smiled now at the memory, feeling comforted by the faith that her friends had in her. Her hand unconsciously drifted to the pouch that that contained her treasured keys in it. It's true that she was stronger now, her magic couldn't even compare to what she had a year ago, let alone when she had first joined this guild. She was very confident in her fighting abilities, she just guessed that at this point she was used to comparing herself to the immeasurable power that her friends possessed, always seeing herself has the weakest link. Her smile grew to light up her face as she thought about how strong they were now, especially Natsu. He had spent as many years as she could remember doing everything possible to gain more power, no matter how dangerous and life threatening it always seemed to end up being. The years had inevitably gone by, and many things about him have changed; he seemed more mature, though many people had believed that to be an impossible feat, he was even more confident and comfortable with his magic and in his own skin. Sure he still participated in a lot oof fights, the majority of which he had started himself, but even Lucy could tell that he was fighting for the joy of a tussle, not to prove who was the strongest in the guild (though he still claims it's him). Lucy had watched him go through all of these changes, watched as he grew and matured into the person that he was today. Lucy was beyond proud of him, proud to call him her best friend.

"Igneel would be so proud of you, too..." She murmured to herself, looking wistfully up at the sky as if expecting the mighty red dragon to soar through the clear blue sky.

While she was admiring the beautiful sky though, she was unable to witness the pink hair dragon slayers head whip around, fixing her with a wide eyed look of shock as his cheeks began to turn a dark crimson. Curse that boy and his damned hearing, he wasn't supposed to catch that. By the time that Lucy looked down again, Natsu had almost given himself whiplash with how quickly he looked forward once again to avoid eye contact.

"I've always wondered if Grandeenay would be proud of everything that I've done over the past few years." Wendy pipped up, giving Natsu a coy sort of smile.

Lucy felt her ears start to burn. If Wendy had overheard what she had said about Igneel, then there was no possible way that Natsy had missed it.

"O-Of course she would be!" Natsu barley choked out, his voice higher than he had intended for it to be.

Was Lucy imagining things, or was the back of his neck a light shade of pink?

"You've become so very strong, Wendy, the true pride of our guild." Erza thankfully added, smiling fondly at the Sky Maiden.

"Natsu, you look like a tomato." Happy spoke up with concern, flying leisurely around his head.

"Do not!" Natsu barked indignantly, crossing his arms in an act of stubbornness.

Lucy wanted to see his face for herself but he refused to look back at her, head facing straight to the path they were following.

"Guess you're turning into a real Flame-Brain." Gray mocked, hands up and resting at the back of his head.

Natsu grabbed his shirt collar in a flash, glaring daggers into the ice mages dark eyes. "Do you wanna go, Popsicle?" He growled.

Gray smashed his forhead against Natsus. "Any time, Smokey!"

Before it had a chance to morph into one of their famous fights, Erza had moved forward and completely dropped them with a single movement, too quick for Lucy to follow.

"Good grief." Erza sighed, shaking her head at the two boys.

Both of which were now laying on the ground, grabbing their heads as they moaned in pain. Wendy gave a quiet awkward laugh while Carla just sighed as well. Lucy groaned, looking back up at the sky as if it were now to be blamed for all of her problems she was having and going to have on this journey. The one thing she did know, was that this was going to be one hell of a long quest.


	2. Poorly Hidden

Natsu couldn't stop grumbling to himself as he pressed his hand gingerly to the ever growing bump on the side of his head. Damn, it seriously felt like her "punishment punches" were starting to hurt more and more every time she dolled them out. He swore that one of these days she was actually gonna end up killing them, why couldn't she just lay off of them for once? Not like what happened was his fault anyways.

"Gray's the one who started this, so why always hit me, too..." He muttered under his breath, taking extra care to make sure the scarlet demon didn't hear him. He had enough bruises from her for one day.

Her heard a soft laugh beside him, making his body tense up out of habit and his heart to beat faster. Did she even know what every little thing does to him? Even the simplest thing like that musical laugh of hers...

"Why're you laughin'?" Natsu asked grumbling, shooting her an accusing look.

Lucy was smiling sweetly at him, causing his heart to flutter again and his mood to sour even further. He could have sworn that she was doing this to him on purpose at this point.

"You guys really should have learned by now not to fight in front of Erza." She giggled. "What's that saying about doing something over and over again while expecting a different result?"

Oh great, she was teasing him now too. "It wasn't my fault!" He complained, feeling his anger rising some more, "Icicle over there is the one that started it!"

"But you think you guys would have figured it out by now." She pointed out, eyes sparkling with mischief.

Natsu didn't know what happened, but it felt like something inside of him snapped. "Ya, because I'M the one who's terrible at figuring things out." He practically growled at her.

After the words were out, a cold feeling washed over him and his eyes widened slightly, appalled by what he had just said. He cringed when Lucy sucked in a quick breath of air, her own eyes slightly widened in shock at his words.

Shit... "Lucy-"

"Don't worry!" She interrupted, lips breaking out in a sunny smile.

Natsu immediately frowned. There it was, that smile. That smile that he hated more than anything in the world. That was the smile he had grown accustomed to when he had returned from his year long training adventure. That was the same smile she gave to him every time she told him that it was okay, that she had forgiven him. It would have fooled anyone who didn't know her, but Natsu could easily see how fake it was, how much pain was hiding behind such a happy smile. He wanted to never see that smile again, but here it was, all because he was being a complete asshole to his best friend when she definitely didn't deserve it. Even to this day, if his year away was brought up, she seemed to shut down slightly and then lets that god damn smile replace the emotions that she didn't want anyone else to see.

"Lucy..." He began again, but honestly he had no idea where that sentence was going or how he could possibly apologize for something like this.

"You're right though! I'm definitely not the best at figuring some things out, but I promise I'll work on it." With one more of those heartbreaking smiles she got up from where she was crouching and walked over to where Gray was dramatically laying on the floor.

He was such a fucking idiot, maybe he should say something else to make Erza punch him again, he definitely deserved it. He never snaps or speaks to Lucy that way, not since what had happened before he knew Lisanna was alive and she had said something that reminded him of his supposedly dead friend. That was all in the past though, and he's made it his goal never to speak poorly to Lucy like that again, she should never feel anything but happiness and love in this guild, and he promised to keep it that way. Lisanna was thankfully back and alive, and him and Lucy were as close as they have ever been, as close as two friends could possibly be. Natsu frowned, glowering at the little pebble that was innocently resting beside him like everything was it's fault. Friends, there was that word again, that amazing word that also made him want to set everything on fire. It was a precious word, a word that he would risk his life for while doing everything to protect it, but lately it has become the bane of his existence. That word has spent the last year mocking him, seemingly laughing at him at every failed attempt he's made to confess to Lucy.

* * *

The first attempt had been the moment after defeating Acnologia and falling from the sky. He had painfully landed on Lucy and Happy, but neither of them seemed to mind at all. Lucy had looked up at him with her eyes filled with tears, the most beautiful smile he had ever seen was gracing her lips. She had welcomed him home, and he wanted nothing more than to kiss her right then and there. He had actually tried, too, but his friends with the worst timing every had tackled him away the second he started leaning down to those plump lips of hers. That was strike one.

Strike two was only about a month later. Everyone had barely left the guild in all of that time, not only because parts of it needed to be rebuilt, AGAIN, but because no one seemed willing to be away from their family for longer than a few moments. It was that night that Levy and Gajeel had announced to the guild that they were officially dating. It took a while for the initial shock to wear off, but when it did the entire guild through one of their famous celebration parties, everyone cheering and a few cruder members of the guild were throwing around things like "But how will it fit?!."

Lucy had come and sat down beside him while the party was in full swing. She sighed dreamily, resting her chin in her hand as she stared over at where Gajeel had his arm wrapped protectively around Levy.

"It must be nice," She began, capturing his attention away from his drink, "Finding the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with? I wonder if they know how lucky they are..."

Natsus breath hitched in his throat. There it was, the golden opportunity to tell Lucy how he feels. It's perfect too, she's already feeling happy and loving, so there was no way that this could go wrong.

"It must be!" Natsu cursed himself when he voice came out an octave higher than usual. "B-but, you know... I want..." His mouth was dry and he was stuttering, what the hell was wrong with him? Taking a deep breath, he practically got the rest out in one quick sentence. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you!"

Lucy had looked at him them, those amazing chocolate eyes slightly wider than usual and a healthy blush on her cheeks. Finally she smiled at him and his heart began to soar.

"Of course we will!" She said happily, "We're best friends, we're always going to be together!"

* * *

Natsu visibly cringed again at the memory, his glare turning furious as he continued to blame the pebble for every little thing that had gone wrong in his life up until now. He could swear that the rock was starting to sweat under his gaze, but he quickly ignored it as he remember the third time he accidentally confessed. He says accidentally because he had no intentions of confessing again for a while, too mortified by what had happened that night at the party.

* * *

It was three months later when Natsu was making his way from the Guild to Lucys apartment. Happy was passed out drunk in a plant so he had decided to go home before him and Gray destroyed another wing of the guild and Erza actually stabbed them. He jumped and scaled the wall easily, climbing through her open window and stealthily landing on the floor in her room. For someone who was always complaining about him breaking into her room, maybe she shouldn't always leave the window open and unlocked. Not like that would stop him anyways, but still, such a weirdo... She was sleeping soundly under her pink sheets, her blond hair splayed around her face like a mane made of sunlight. It was around 2am so it was understandable that she was already in such a deep sleep. Taking care not to wake her, he crept around to where her reading chair was and plopped down with a sigh, quietly opening a bag of potato chips she had ever so kindly left on the desk. He chewed thoughtfully, feeling like he was about to fall asleep when he first heard it. He went dead quiet to see if he was imagining things, but there it was again, a pained whimper coming from Lucy as she slept. He studied her face from where he sat and quickly figured out that she must be having a nightmare. It must have been a bad one, her eyes were screwed closed and her nose scrunched up, her lips trembling as well as her hands. He was considering if waking her up was worth the beating she would give him, then all thoughts flew from his mind when she started speaking.

"Don't... go..." She breathed out, her fingers flexing as if she was reaching for something to grab.

Natsus eyebrows furrowed together as she continued.

"Couldn't save... gone... my fault..."

A hollow feeling starting creeping its way into Natsus chest as he started to piece together what she was dreaming about.

"I... killed... Natsu..."

The bag of chips slipped from his fingers as his entire boy went rigid from her words. Gray and Happy had told him a few days later about how he didn't disappear when Zeref did. They had told him about how Lucy had almost died re-writing the book of E.N.D. and how it had been her who had saved his life. Then only a few moments later, him and all of the other Dragon Slayers had vanished because of Acnologia. It must have looked like she had failed, must have actually though he had died.

"My fault!" She sobbed, turning her face into the pillow as her entire body shook.

Before Natsu realized, his body had moved on its own. In an instant he was sitting beside Lucy on her bed, his hand stroking her silky hair softly and carefully as to not wake her.

"I'm right here, Lucy." He whispered, eyes half closed as he spoke. "I'm here because you saved me, you saved my life." He set his jaw and looked out the window to where the stars were shinning brilliantly. "My life belongs to you now, and I will spend every moment I have left by your side, keeping you safe and happy." He looked down and smiled when he saw that she was starting to relax, her face not so pinched anymore. "We'll be together forever, I promise. I'll always keep you safe because I love you..."

"Natsu..." She murmured, a small smile finally touching her lips as her sleep became peaceful again.

It was after that moment he had been with her every night after that. He had always known that he loved her, but he had never admitted it out loud before. Saying it instead of just thinking it made everything so much more real for him. Him spending every night there definitely didn't start off well. Lucy would usually kick the shit out of him whenever she woke up and found him in her bed, and he had learned that alarm clocked hurt a lot more than expected when they are chucked viciously at your head. Every bump and bruise was worth it though. Her nightmares never really went away, but Natsu was always secretly there to comfort her whenever they got too bad, even waking her up when even he couldn't handle seeing her in so much pain anymore. After a few weeks though Lucy seemed to start accepting it and expecting him to be there all the time. It became habit to wake up and get ready in the morning, have breakfast and then walked together to the guild. Those were the moments Natsu would cherish above all else, even though they weren't as close as he wanted, he would stay like this until both of them were ready to take that dive.

* * *

Natsu found himself sighing as he thought about this morning. He wasn't planning on confessing again, especially after deciding to wait a while longer, but when she was crying in his arms the first thing that came to his mind was to kiss her. He was going to without hesitation this time, but then he saw her face. She had obviously guessed what he was about to do, and the look of fear and nervousness on her face was what made him stop. Lucy shouldn't look that way before their first kiss, she should look happy and excited, maybe just a hint of nervousness, but she should look like she actually wanted to be Natsu had done the second thing that came to mind; he grabbed her hand and dragged her out of her apartment to start another adventure together. She wasn't ready for the next step, and Natsu knew and respected that, doesn't mean it didn't hurt every day to love a girl who didn't love you back.

"Natsu-san?"

Wendys concerned voice jolted him out of his depressing trip down memory lane. She gave him a worried look, crouching next to him and resting her aarms on her legs so she could be at eye level with his sitting was perched on her back staring at the same rock as if it was about to roll away.

"Is everything okay? You keep glaring at the rock and I think you're scaring it. Are you still upset at Gray-san?" She asked kindly.

Natsu shook his head. "That's not it."

Slowly, Wendy started to smile, it was a smile he had seen many times on Miras face. He broke out in a cold sweat. "Were you thinking about Lucy-san?"

Wendy had become a little matchmaker over the years, which was surprising because of how innocent the girl still was. To every ones dismay, Mir had practically taken the girl under her wing as they both worked on getting their favourite couples in the guild together.

"No." He instantly denied, but it was obvious that Wendy didn't believe him.

"Have you ever considered just talking to her and telling her about your feelings? I know that if you're just honest with her, she would return your feelings as well."

Natsu didn't answer, instead he looked over to where Lucy was sitting with Gray. Her eyes were closed as she laughed, her hand party covering her mouth. Natsu felt his anger spike again, his need to punch Gray now bigger than ever. Why was she over there laughing with the Ice Princess, she should be laughing over here with him instead!

 _She would have been if you didn't snap at her for no reason at all._

A voice in the back of his mind pointed out, practically taunting him. He growled quietly, wishing it would shut up even though it was completely right this time.

"Okay, you've both rested enough!" Erza announced, walking over with her hands on her hips, armor gleaming in the midday sunlight.

Natsu bit back his comment of "If you didn't hit us we wouldn't have needed to rest" because he valued his life and he got to his feet, brushing the dust off of his white pants. He looked over at Lucy and watched as her eyes darted to the ground, causing his heart to sink. Was she avoiding eye contact with him? Damn, he seriously fucked up this time, how was he supposed to fix this? He sighed for what felt like the millionth time and put his hands behind his head. He knew that Lucy would forgive him quickly, that was just the kind of person she was, but there was no way he was going to forgive himself for being such a dick to her.

"How much longer are we going to be walking?" Grays lazy drawl cut through his thoughts like a hot iron. "At this rate, it's going to take us 100 years just to make it to Mt. Zonia." He crossed his arms over his suddenly bare chest. "If we catch the express train going straight through Fiore, it should only take us a month to make it there."

Both Natsu and Wendy went completely pale, looking at each other with horrified eyes.

"Weeks?!" They yelled in sync, suddenly going green just from the thought of it.

"It's on the other side of Fiore, of course it's going to take us that long." Lucy sighed. "It's no wonder why Gildarts was gone for so long, he walks everywhere he goes. Half his trip must have just been from walking back and forth from Magnolia, and the other half recovering from fighting a Dragon."

"That makes me remember something." Wendy pipped up suddenly, sending curious eyes Erzas way. "What even is this quest about? No one has been able to give us many details, it seems."

Natsu blinked a few times as he registered her words. Now that he thought about it, he had absolutely no clue what the job even was, he was just so pumped from being able to do what he wanted since the war that he didn't bother to even think about that.

"It's not exactly clear..." Erza started, pulling out the flyer from one of her many suitcases. "Mostly it speaks about the mountain being cursed, how anyone who has come in close proximity to it has either died or disappeared. The request is to find out why and fix the problem."

Everyone seemed to sweat-drop at the bluntness of that last line.

"So anyone who goes near the mountain just... dies?" Lucy tried to clarify, looking slightly dismayed by the idea.

"That doesn't seemed likely." Gray cut in. "Gildarts made it to the mountain and he came home alive, maybe it's an over time thing or something is killing people."

"The request was made by a man who lived in the area and his descendants have continued to put out the request and increase the reward amount the longer that it stays uncompleted. They will most likely give us more information that we need when we reach our destination." Erza concluded, stuffing the flyer back in a different bag this time.

"So then it's decide, we take the train." Gray said smugly.

"Nothing's decided!" Natsu yelped, going green again.

"It's either a month or so by train, or countless months walking." Lucy pointed out.

Natsu turned to meet her eyes, slowly starting to feel better when she gave him a small smile and didn't look away this time.

"Natsu-san." Wendys quivering voice brought his gaze down to meet her watering eyes. "We don't seem to have a choice anymore."

"You don't need to cry about it!" Carla scolded, shaking her head at the young girl.

"Don't worry, Natsu." Erza began, a smile on her face but an evil glint in her eyes. "I'll make sure you are both taken care of."

Natsu and Wendy both withered and shrunk away from her words, both knowing exactly how Erza handled their motion sickness on long train rides. This next month was going to be pure hell.


End file.
